The Last Day...

It's the very last day of November! The last official day of National Adoption Month. 

How did National Adoption Month go for you?

• The FSA board didn't post every day on this blog liked we hoped but we did post often and plan to continue doing so.

• The picture above is a display my local library put together after I gave them a list of children's adoption books. It was very exciting to see the display and people checking out books. I also had a good conversation about adoption with the children's librarian.

• I was chatting with my neighbor in my driveway when she saw our license plate frame on our car and asked more about our involvement with adoption. We had a very nice discussion. 

• I received positive responses to my posts about adoption on Facebook and my personal blogs.  (I saw many of you post things about adoption, too!)

It was a great month!

We would like to know more about what the members of the Indiana & Kentucky FSA chapter did to celebrate, outreach and/or show support for adoption! Please tell us your stories by emailing us (indianafsa@gmail.com) or leaving a comment.

I hope we all will continue to find ways to expand our knowledge about adoption issues and to share our testimonies.

Adoption is about love!

EE

Outreach On the Go

Don't have a lot of time for adoption advocacy and outreach?

Let these items speak for you or be the conversation starters needed to share your testimony.

Decals, bumper stickers, license plate frames.

Church bags, library bags, reusable shopping bags.

T-shirts for kids, parents, grandparents.

Magazines and books on your end tables.

Go here to get 30 days of celebrating National Adoption Month 2010 from Adoptive Families magazine.

Many of these items were bought at the FSA store at a recent adoption conference which unfortunately does not have an on-line store or website but you could easily make your own t-shirts, bags and more.

National Adoption Awareness Month

The Indiana/Kentucky chapter of Families Supporting Adoption just wrapped up hosting and attending the 2010 adoption conferences. In May and September there was our chapter’s training conferences. Then in July there was the National FSA Conference in Utah and October was the Regional FSA conference. FSA puts a lot of prayer, time, money and effort into these conferences with a hope to fulfill one of FSA’s purposes: to support adoptive couples, adoptive families, adoptees and birth parents and to provide pre-adoption and post-adoption education and services. We hope you were able to take advantage of these conferences and your testimony of adoption was strengthen.

Another purpose of FSA besides supporting adoptive families is to have our adoptive families and others support adoption. As we all know the family is under attack including adoptive families. Recently at the regional conference, Brother Sunday of the National FSA Board, expressed his concern about domestic adoption remaining an option for building families. He stated that in many countries similar to the US (such as Britain and Australia) domestic adoption has become practically nonexistent. This limits the likelihood for many children to be sealed and raised in an eternal family or for a chance at life at all. This limits the choices of the unmarried expecting parents and potentially leads them further away from the straight and narrow path. This also limits the options a couple can choose from to build an eternal family. If the construct of adoption falters and fails, then Satan wins a major battle in the war for the family.

We need our FSA members who understand the truth and doctrine about adoption- that it is a part of Heavenly Father’s plan for building eternal families and it is about love- to support adoption through outreach. November is National Adoption Month which provides a good opportunity to do outreach. There are many ways to outreach and support adoption and many are simple and easy. A few of my personal favorites are:

• Put “Adoption: It’s About Love” window cling/bumper sticker on your car. (There was one provided in all the folders at the May conference and I believe the Sept. conference too).

• Share your testimony about adoption with others.

• Ask your local libraries to create a display of adoption related books in November.

• Blog about your adoption journey or put posts about adoption on Facebook.

• At our chapter’s blog (www.indianafsa.blogspot.com) we have accepted the challenge to try and post daily during the month of Nov. So make sure to stop by to read, comment and share with others what we have there.

I know if we do these things Heavenly Father will bless us and adoption will grow and prosper. As we outreach, our waiting for placements will become shorter; there will be fewer failed and disrupted adoptions and the environments we work, play, go to school and live in will be more supportive of our children, our families, and birth parents; and love will abound.

With great hope and much love,
Esther Edwards
Co-Chair IN/KY FSA

“Never underestimate the power of a small group of committed people to change the world. In fact, it is the only thing that ever has.” – Margaret J. Wheatley

Happy Adoption Awareness Month!!!

November is National Adoption Awareness Month! To spread adoption awareness there are many simple things anyone can do. Here are just a few ideas to get some creative juices flowing:
*Tell your local library about November and ask them if you can create an adoption display or see if they will pull books about adoption (children's books too) for the display. You might be surprised how willing they are to have you create one.

*If you happen to have any adoption agency pass along cards like those that LDS Family Services has, leave them wherever you go: the bulletin at the grocery store, the library, the post office - anywhere! Leave your own pass along cards wherever you go!

*Call your local newspaper and ask them to consider writing an article about adoption to support National Adoption Month.

*Be willing to talk about adoption with others - share your knowledge and experiences.

*If there happens to be an adoption walk in town or an adoption celebration of some kind - do it!
*Attend any adoption support groups

*And here's a really simple one that requires no face to face contact: post something about adoption, link LDSFS or any adoption agency to your blog or website - be creative.

*

We will be doing many of these things in our area and we encourage you to be proactive and make a difference in yours. You never know who might benefit from learning more. There are a lot of sad misconceptions about adoption and we want people to know what it really is - ABOUT LOVE!

P.S. – If you have success of any kind, tell us about it and send pictures so that we can share it with everyone else! Happy Adoption Month!